It was a cloudy night in Cincinnati, and Reds manager Bryan Price made it rain expletives during Monday's meeting with reporters.
It all started when a reporter asked Price why catcher Devin Mesoraco had not traveled with the team during last weekend's games against the St. Louis Cardinals.
Price apparently felt it was too nosy of a question.
The manager was worried that opposing teams might read reports of his explanation and use it to gain a competitive advantage against the Reds, whose season is off to a slow start. The team was 5–7 before tonight's win over the even weaker Brewers.
Rosecrans reports:
"What followed was a five-minute, 34-second expletive-filled tirade. The final tally was 77 uses of the "F" word or a variant and 11 uses of a vulgar term for feces (two bovine, one equine)."
Price told Rosecrans (and a few other remaining reporters) the following:
Your job is not to sniff out every f****** thing is about the Reds and f****** put it out there for every other f****** guy to hear. It's not your job. You want me to be candid with you? I've been candid with you. I f****** talk to you guys like men, I tell you what the f***'s going on with the team, I tell you how I'm feeling as candidly as I can and then this s***? You've got to watch this f****** s***? I've got to f****** read that on a f****** Tweet on our own people in here that we don't have a f****** player? How the f*** does that benefit the Reds? It doesn't benefit us one f****** bit. God **** we try to go out there and win f****** games and I got to come in here and then you guys f****** blow it all over the f****** place? Who we can play? Who we can't? I'll tell you what you want to know, I'm not going to f****** lie to you. I didn't tell you f****** s***.
Unfortunately for Price, the job of a beat reporter is precisely to "sniff out every f****** thing" about the team they are assigned to cover, whether or not it is of "benefit" to the team.
He apparently feels that reporters digging for more information than he is willing to give them — why a star catcher would not be present for an early season game, for example — is unfair to him and the team, as evidenced by the following: "I bend over backwards to be honest and direct with you f****** guys and you stick it right up my f****** a** — and the f****** team's a**. "
Despite the torrent of fury Price unleashed, Rosecrans held his ground against the second-year manager:
[Bryan Price]: How is that good for the Reds?
[C. Trent Rosecrans]: I don't know…
BP: Yeah, well it's making my job f****** harder.
CTR: I'm sure it is.
On Tuesday, Price and the Reds released a statement on Twitter:
In my pre-game conversation with reporters yesterday, I used wholly inappropriate language to describe the media coverage of our team. While I stand by the content of my message, I am sorry for the choice of words.